Art and NFTs: ThreeSpaces in Walnut Creek | Travel + Places

Debra Nipp understands that terms like “crypto­currency” and “NFT” can scare people. After all, she was shaken down herself on the internet frontier known as Web3.

A few years ago, Nipp, a Walnut Creek single mom and pediatric occupational therapist, fell victim to crypto fraud.

“It was a scam that targeted women in health care,” Nipp says.

Although Nipp lost several thousand dollars, she didn’t let that keep her away from Web3 (shorthand for the latest generation of internet technology, including cryptocurrency, the metaverse, and non-fungible tokens, aka NFTs). Instead, she delved deeper into these new concepts with the initial goal of helping others avoid the same scam. But soon she became fascinated by NFTs, a bit of crypto sorcery that can be used to buy, sell, and authenticate unique online items. Already a multibillion-dollar industry, NFTs allow businesses to create one-of-a-kind digital assets, like event tickets, customer rewards, or items in video games.

Especially interesting to Nipp was how artists are using NFTs to retain unprecedented control over their work after it’s sold. She saw lots of opportunity—for some.

“Only 16 percent of NFT artists are women,” Nipp says.

In part to help more women and other underrepresented people ride the NFT art wave, Nipp, along with crypto enthusiast and tech entrepreneur Reid Butler, founded ThreeSpaces, a start-up that gets NFT works into the physical world where they can be seen by people who might never view them online.

Partnering with more than 30 artists in the East Bay and beyond, ThreeSpaces creates and displays prints of NFT works at local businesses and other spaces. At Lafayette’s Pillar Cowork and Childcare, laptop warriors work against a backdrop of colorful abstract landscapes, portraits, and AI-generated images. Each piece can be purchased with the scan of a QR code, and buyers receive both the NFT and a print to display. While NFTs are typically bought and sold using cryptocurrency, ThreeSpaces allows buyers to use credit cards.

Pillar cofounder Amirh Davis was thrilled when the ThreeSpaces team showed up with their catalog of works, then mounted her selections on the walls at no cost to her business.

“We always wanted Pillar to be a space where creative energy could be displayed,” Davis says. “To showcase artists of different backgrounds and diversity was really appealing.”

Besides prints, ThreeSpaces also installs digital displays that rotate through pieces that are available for purchase as NFTs. They’ve placed art at other area venues, including Moraga’s Canyon Club Brewery and Lafayette’s Create and Flow studio.

Once the art is on the walls, ThreeSpaces throws an opening party at the host establishment—a chance to help potential buyers understand why they would want to own an NFT.

“Think of NFTs as digital certificates for art, music, videos, or other creative works,” Butler explains. He likens an NFT to a famous painting: While many people might own a print, only one can possess the original. “By owning the original piece represented by the NFT, you not only directly support the artist, but also acquire a digital collectible with verifiable ownership that has the potential to appreciate in value over time,” he says.

NFTs offer unprecedented opportunities for artists. The underlying technology, known as a blockchain, allows a “smart contract” to be coded into an NFT. Artists can structure these contracts so that they automatically receive royalties every time their work is sold. For instance, when ThreeSpaces sells an NFT, the artist receives at least 50 percent of the initial sale price. If the buyer resells the NFT, a percentage of that subsequent sale will also be paid to the artist.

Artist Robin Gibson, a ThreeSpaces partner and creator of the blossom-filled murals covering many Oakland buildings, calls the NFT payment model “intriguing.” With ThreeSpaces, Gibson is offering two limited-run NFT bundles, both depicting oil paintings that are privately owned and unavailable for purchase.

“When you buy art as an NFT, both the collector and the artist can reap rewards anytime it gets sold,” says Gibson. “If Picasso had minted NFTs, his family would still be getting paid for subsequent sales.”

Selling art in NFT form may be especially worthwhile for developing artists, since—if they become better known in the future—the resale value of their early works could vastly exceed the original selling prices.

Beyond getting NFT works out of the ether and onto walls, ThreeSpaces has other ways of helping businesses tap into Web3 art. They’re working with Napa’s Peju winery to auction off 12 bottles with artist-original labels. Buyers will also receive an NFT, making them the owners of the art on the label. A portion of the proceeds will go to Napa’s Monarch Justice Center.

The auction is just another way that the East Bay start-up is working to “bridge the digital with the physical,” as Nipp puts it, and introduce the joys of art NFTs to a new audience. By partnering with underrepresented artists, Nipp hopes that ThreeSpaces will help democratize Web3.

“Being part of a new technology with the potential to bring about positive social change is incredibly rewarding,” Nipp says.

The ABCs of NFTs

NFT stands for non-fungible token.

Something fungible can be swapped for other interchangeable items. Dollar bills, shares of stock, and even gallons of milk are considered fungible—one of the same type could fairly be exchanged for any other. Units of cryptocurrency are also considered fungible because one bitcoin is the same as any other bitcoin.

Non-fungible items are unique, and thus not interchangeable. A house, a work of art, or a piece of custom jewelry are all examples of non-fungible assets. If someone replaced your house with a different house, you’d notice.

In cryptocurrency, the word “token” is often used to represent a store of value. Fungible tokens can be traded for other tokens or purchased at agreed-upon rates. But each NFT is unique and has its own distinct value. The market has judged some NFTs to be very valuable indeed; digital works by the artist known as Beeple have sold for as much as $69 million.

Unsurprisingly, high-value NFTs have attracted hackers’ attention, and many would-be collectors have lost their digital art to theft. The prices of ThreeSpaces’s NFTs are not quite as lofty, with some selling for under $30. The lower profile allows the company to assure buyers that as long as they practice good security, their NFTs should be safe at home.